Not-So High School Sweethearts

1: Without Them

**WARNING: This chapter contains violence (that I redid and doesn't follow the anime/manga), blood, and mentions of someone encouraging others to commit**

"Tanjiro! Tanjiro?" Nezuko kept on calling out to her brother from inside the house but each time she called she never got a response. "Tanjiro where are-" she stopped midway in her tracks when she overheard her brother on the other side of the door.

Kanao must be here, she thought. The voices were clearly theirs and she thought that even if it wasn't important she still wouldn't bother them. Kanao was on good terms with Nezuko but she still didn't talk, or at least not more than a few words, to her unlike Muichiro and Aoi.

Already turning back to go to her own room, Nezuko didn't bother going to try to eavesdrop on her brother and his girlfriend. She could ask him for help when he got done or when Kanao left the room.

I wonder if Kanao will stay for dinner, Nezuko started thinking again. Or maybe she'll stay and cook. God, she's the best cook. Her mouth started drooling at the thought of it. Yeah, she was hungry, too.

When she reached her door her hand suddenly froze at the door. She kinda cooks like mom, huh? Funny how my brother started dating someone who cooks so much like mom. Before she showed off her cooking skills a few months ago I would've never guessed.

Her heart started pounding in her chest as she thought of her younger siblings running around the house as she played with them while her mother was making food for them. Tanjiro would be there sometimes if he wasn't working. All of them would be young children goofing around.

On days when Tanjiro and Nezuko both went into town everyone who knew them would greet them. Some asked Tanjiro for help while others caught Nezuko's attention as she talked with him or when she offered her own help or advice. 

Their father wasn't around anymore since a few years ago. He had died before the rest of the family did. A fire started at Sun Breathing Studios while their father was trapped on the 3rd floor. The arsonist was never caught except for hearing a man's voice saying they were glad they killed the boss and they would come for the rest of his family soon in the future. No lead whatsoever was made.

And that man's promise and goal was fulfilled.

A while later there were screams that filled the neighborhood. It wasn't the ghetto or anything but at night there were crimes of killing and cannibalism made.

That one night Tanjiro went into town for his mom was the night that their family was murdered. Everyone knew not to stay out into the night so he lodged with a man he knew who lived up the hill from his house. But if he could change that night then he wouldn't think a seocnd thought about doing it.

The same man who killed the Kamado father went out to murder the rest of the family. Blood was everywhere, guts belonging to someone laid out on the floor, it was a bloodbath everywhere. 

Nezuko was struck, choked, and beat but afterwards she pretended to be dead. She hoped that the man would believe her and as the rest of the family laid dead, even though she still had hope they were doing the same as her, and he walked off she let out of quiet, bloodied sigh of relief. 

She stayed on the ground for a few more minutes until she froze in her spot again. "I'm letting you live. Remember that and remember that I will come back for you and your brother..." the man whispered in her ear.

A shiver ran down her spine as she held her eyes closed shut in fear. Why have the false hope that her family would still be alive when she knew what this man was capable of? Just now she heard the screams, she saw the blood and guts, she felt the pain, she smelled death.